Editing Bleem! (section)

==Sony lawsuit==
Two days after Bleem! started taking preorders for their emulator, Sony filed suit over [[copyright infringement|violations of copyright]]. Sony had accused Bleem! of engaging in [[Anti-competitive practices|unfair competition]] by allowing PlayStation BIOSs to be used on a personal computer as this would ultimately damage Sony's sales of the PlayStation. The Judge had rejected the notion, and issued a protective order to "protect David from Goliath". Sony's second copyright allegation regarded the use of screenshots on their [[advertisement]]s comparing the native PlayStation and emulated Bleem! versions. The district court had held in favor of Sony regarding the allegation and issued a [[Injunction|preliminary injunction]] against Bleem!; however, Bleem! later [[Appeal|appealed]] the decision providing their use of copyrighted material was protected under [[fair use]]. The appeal was successful, with the court stating that the use of screenshots of Sony's video games rather constituted [[comparative advertising]].<ref>{{Citation|title=Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem|date=May 4, 2000|url=https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_case?case=11837224078052556056&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr|volume=214|pages=1022|access-date=November 3, 2021}}</ref>

In spite of the loss, the release of the Bleemcast! caused Sony to file another lawsuit accusing them of [[Anti-competitive practices|unfair competition]] and [[patent infringement]] regarding the use of PlayStation BIOSs on the [[Sega Dreamcast]]. This approach had become problematic for Bleem!, despite no actual court ruling against them. The main issue regarded the financial problems Bleem! had faced as they had to deal with defense costs of $1 million per patent. This had caused Bleem!'s work to decline, so that they had only managed to release three games: ''[[Metal Gear Solid (1998 video game)|Metal Gear Solid]]'', ''[[Gran Turismo 2]]'', and ''[[Tekken 3]]'', for the Bleemcast!.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hosie|first=Ewen|date=2017-12-11|title=The history of bleem!|url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-12-11-the-history-of-bleem|access-date=2021-11-03|website=Eurogamer|language=en}}</ref> At this point, Sony had obstructed Bleem! from developing further video games for the Bleemcast! and had even threatened retailers selling these products.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Aldershoff|first=Jan Willem|date=2001-06-10|title=Sony is trying to stop the bleemcast! PSX emulator discs for the|url=https://www.myce.com/news/Sony-is-trying-to-stop-the-bleemcast-PSX-emulator-discs-for-the-1995/|access-date=2021-11-03|website=Myce.com|language=en-US}}</ref>

The legal fees forced the company out of business and [[eBay]] auctions of some of the company's possessions were held soon after&nbsp;– including a huge library of worldwide game releases used for compatibility testing.

===Closure of Bleem!===
Although Sony ultimately did not win any of its lawsuits against them, Bleem! had to shut down when the huge court costs became too much for the small company to handle. Bleem! shut down in November 2001,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bramwell |first1=Tom |title=Game Over for bleem |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/article_31440 |website=[[Eurogamer]] |publisher=[[Future plc]] |access-date=29 December 2021 |location=[[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] |language=en |date=19 November 2001}}</ref> the same year Sega announced that they would discontinue the Dreamcast in North America. Bleem! closed their website, with only an image on their front page showing [[Sonic the Hedgehog (character)|Sonic the Hedgehog]] tearfully holding a flower next to a Bleem! gravestone. However, the image was later altered and Sonic was removed, ironically to avoid a lawsuit from Sega.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://seganerds.com/2015/05/19/whatever-happened-bleemcast/|title=Whatever happened to 'Bleemcast'? &#124; SEGA Nerds|date=19 May 2015}}</ref> Sega themselves had also been indirectly involved in the obstruction of Bleemcast! by the way of the removal of support for the unpopular (for Sega's intended use) MIL-CD format on later Dreamcast models.<ref name=planetdc/>

===Beta leak===
A beta build of Bleemcast! was eventually [[Internet leak|leaked]]. Even though it was buggy and incomplete, it would run some PlayStation games, though not all the games it ran would be playable.{{cn|date=November 2022}} Using this beta, hackers were able to create "Bleemed games"&nbsp;– discs of a PlayStation title with the Bleemcast! emulator built in. ISO images of many of these discs were known to circulate on file-sharing networks.

After the leak, Rod Maher, one of the developers of Bleemcast!, made a public statement regarding the beta, providing some insight into the development process. He revealed that the leaked beta predated the beta that had been shown at E3 and that the leaked beta was 30% complete.<ref>
Maher, Rod. "[http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=29658 A few words about the beta.]" DCEmulation. Accessed May 29, 2017.
</ref> The commercial Bleemcast! release was notable as the only release on the Dreamcast that had not been pirated, as it had a complex copy-protection scheme. All three Bleempaks were finally cracked and made available online in December 2009, eight years after their introduction.{{Citation needed|date=August 2014}}